White Paper: The Insurance Industry

Increases in population and household income and age are resulting in continued growth of transaction and advertising mail from the insurance industry. Insurance companies emphasize service to and relationship with customers as two of the most important aspects of their business, particularly as baby boomers hit retirement and their children gather wealth.

What is driving mail volume growth in the insurance industry, and what are the main implications for the future? What change drivers have strong statistical relationships with mail volume? What do we learn from a systematic assessment of past correlations and their usefulness for understanding market changes and anticipating future developments?

Insurance companies are a major sender of bills and solicitations mail to households and businesses. Continued increases in population, household income and age, and business establishments have had a positive effect on these mail streams. As households become wealthier, they tend to spend more on insurance services and acquire additional account relationships (e.g., property, casualty, life, health insurance) with financial institutions. These new relationships result in even more bills, statements and relationship mail.

Mail volumes from insurance carriers continue to grow. First-Class mail to households from the insurance industry grew by more than 2.7 percent per year since 2000 (from 4 to 5 billion pieces), at a time when total First-Class mail declined by about 1.4 percent annually.